The present invention relates to farm equipment and, more particularly, to a coulter assembly which may be attached to the frame of an implement and used for introducing seeds, fertilizer or both into the ground as the implement is advanced.
It is known in the art to use an angled coulter blade to open a furrow in the soil that receives seeds, fertilizer, or both. The generally flat coulters are most often used in fields where it is necessary to cut through trash left on the surface of the fields from previously harvested crops.
It is also well known to use a variety of scrapers on one or both faces of the coulter to keep mud from accumulating on those faces and interfering with proper functioning of the unit. One mechanism of this type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,024,179 which shows a floating scraper blade against the trailing face of the angled coulter and a rigid tine on the leading or xe2x80x9ccompressionxe2x80x9d face of the coulter. However, the rigid tine in the ""179 patent is designed and adapted to collect trash during operation and form what is referred to as an xe2x80x9corganic wear padxe2x80x9d to remove soil build-up and avoid excessive wear between the coulter and the tine. In heavy trash conditions, such accumulation and build-up of trash materials can be detrimental to proper functioning of the coulter.
The present invention provides a coulter assembly with a cleaning tine that removes accumulating soil from the face of the coulter and yet has the ability to shed itself of trash that otherwise tends to accumulate and build up, thus avoiding the problems of excessive trash build-up suffered by prior art devices. This ability to shed trash is derived from a resilient mounting arrangement for the tine so that it exhibits a live, vibratory action during field operations as countless random forces impact the tine from a variety of different angles. Instead of having a stiff and rigid mounting as in the prior art, the tine of the present invention has a transverse spring coil at its mounting end that allows the tine to actively deflect and vibrate as dirt clods and trash impact the tine, such erratic movement having the effect of dislodging trash materials before they can accumulate on the tine in any significant way. Thus, metal-to-metal contact between the working tip of the tine and the face of the coulter is promoted. Furthermore, the spring coil is made in such a way that its adjacent convolutions progressively increase in diameter as the working leg of the tine is approached. Thus, when mounted on a supporting surface or hub passing through the center of the coil, one or more of the coils closest to the working leg of the tine can be diametrically spaced out of contact with the hub so as to provide spring action by resiliently contracting in diameter as the working leg is deflected. This oversizing of convolutions adjacent the working leg also facilitates resiliency in a transverse direction so the working leg can vigorously flex toward and away from the face of the coulter. Additionally, the tine is mounted in an adjustable manner so that its angle relative to the ground surface can be changed independently of the coulter to provide the best trash-shedding and coulter cleaning action.